Amnesty International Friday welcomed as a "positive step" the establishment of a special United Nations (UN) tribunal to try the suspects of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik al-Hariri but said it was "insufficient" without wider action to combat impunity, dpa reported.
In a statement released in London, Amnesty called on the Lebanese authorities to go beyond the tribunal's "narrow mandate" of investigating the killing of Hariri and related attacks.
The perpetrators of other grave human rights violations carried out in Lebanon should also be brought to justice, Amnesty said.
"The Special Tribunal alone cannot provide sufficient response to the long pattern of impunity that has persisted in Lebanon," said Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Programme.
However, the establishment of the tribunal was a "positive step" that could help ensure justice for the serious crimes it is to investigate.
"But if it is to gain credibility and public confidence, it must be accompanied by complementary measures that address the grave human rights abuses of the past, as well as those that continue in the present," Amnesty said.
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